The story
Frank H. McIntosh and Gordon Gow co-founded McIntosh in 1949. The company was originally located in Silver Spring MD. It moved to Binghamton NY in 1951.
Dave O'Brien joined McIntosh in 1962. He led the McIntosh Amplifier Clinics for the next 29 years. Dave retired on June 11, 1999, after 38 years of service with McIntosh.
In 1965, Mcintosh amps were used to power President Lyndon B. Johnson’s inauguration speech.
McIntosh created a Loudspeaker division in 1967.
McIntosh amplifiers were used at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. A battery of twenty McIntosh MC3500 tube amplifiers were used to power the JBL speakers at Woodstock for the 400,000+ fans in attendance. Urban legend has it that these amps needed to be cooled by ice on the hot August days so they would not overheat but McIntosh Laboratory Inc President, Charlie Randall, dismissed the tale as folk lore saying "Any ice packed around the amps in the middle of August would have quickly melted and the resulting water would have caused massive issues with the electronics".
On March 23, 1974, the Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound" debuted at the Cow Palace in Daly City, CA (and then subsequently on other tour locations). It reportedly used forty-eight 300-watt per channel (600 wpc in a bridged monoblock configuration) McIntosh model MC2300 solid state amplifiers for a total of 28,800 watts of continuous power to power a speaker system over 100 feet wide and three stories tall.
While staying at the Plaza Hotel in 1976, The Beatles George Harrison requested a McIntosh sound system by name. At 2am that night, four JBL S8Rs and a rack mount of McIntosh power amplifiers, preamplifiers, and a turntable were delivered to his room. The music volume was so loud that other guests and employees could hear it throughout the hotel. Others claimed they heard the music from up to five blocks away. This resulted in him being thrown out of the hotel the following day.
In October 1977, Gordon Gow became president and CEO when Mr. McIntosh retired. Mr. McIntosh sold his stock shares to top management and a few dedicated McIntosh investors. He was retained with a salary on a consulting basis. He moved from his home in Endicott, NY to Scottsdale, Arizona.
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Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, reached a settlement agreement with McIntosh president, Gordon Gow, to use the name Macintosh for Apple's start-up personal computer line. Although the brand names have a different spelling, they sounded enough alike when pronounced that the agreement required a placard to be placed on the back of the Macintosh Plus 1MB computer starting in March 1983. In March 1986, Apple gained exclusive license rights to use the Macintosh name for an undisclosed but substantial sum of money.
Japanese years
The company began to struggle after years of growth and was ultimately acquired by Clarion, a Japanese manufacturer of car stereo gear in 1990 for 28.6 million dollars. McIntosh components, particularly the early tube models, are highly regarded in Japan. In a speech shortly after the purchase, Clarion president Yutaka Oyamada told McIntosh employees that "we like McIntosh as it is, and we have no intention of changing what has made it so successful." After the Clarion purchase, McIntosh expanded into car audio and home theater.
In 2002, McIntosh developed the Harley-Davidson riser mount radio. Sold through Harley dealerships, the radio could be added to many Harley models that lacked mobile audio.
In May 2003, Clarion sold McIntosh Laboratory to D&M Holdings also of Japan. The company continued to operate independent engineering, design, and divisions.
Italian years and return to the United States
On October 8, 2012, Fine Sounds SpA of Milan, Italy, announced it had purchased McIntosh. In May 2014, the CEO of Fine Sounds Group, along with the President of McIntosh Labs, led a management buyout of the Fine Sounds Group from its Italian investment firm owner, Quadrivio Investment Group.
Since then, Fine Sounds Group has renamed itself McIntosh Group and relocated from Milan to New York. McIntosh Group is a holding company for the brands McIntosh Laboratory, Sonus Faber, Sumiko Phono Cartridges, Fine Sounds Americas, Fine Sounds BeNelux, and Fine Sounds U.K. It has also partnered Sonus Faber with Maserati and partnered McIntosh Audio with Jeep. Jeff Poggi and Charlie Randall were named Co-CEO's in 2017 of McIntosh Group. Daniel Pidgeon is the current CEO of McIntosh Group (since June 2022).
Charlie Randall is the current President of McIntosh Laboratory (since 2001).
Dallas-based private investment firm Highlander Partners, acquired McIntosh Group (which includes McIntosh Laboratory) as part of their equity portfolio in June 2022. McIntosh Laboratory's revenue was $25 million and $42 million in 2021 and 2022, respectively. On 19 November 2024, Highlander Partners announced the sale of McIntosh Group to Bose Corporation for an undisclosed sum.
From Wikipedia’s article on McIntosh Laboratory, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5